Family fun

by Grant

Some people think that a family activity is say, going to the zoo. Or if you're well off and and insane, going to Disneyland. I decided tonight that as a family we'd change the oil in our two primary vehicles. Of course, I'm excluding the girls as they don't seem to tolerate late nights very well. Actually, it's more like Mom doesn't tolerate them outside in the dark with vehicles on ramps, etc. etc. etc. So, Forrest and I got started and I put the truck on the ramp. That's always fun as you have to get just the right balance of throttle combined with instant braking at just the right time. I cheat. With a four wheel drive vehicle you have more pull at lower rpms, so it wasn't very hard. Of course, I had Forrest giving me directions which were interesting at the very least. So, by the time the truck was on the ramps my wonderful wife (no sarcasm) came out to help. This is after a rough night with little sleep before. So, I set about acquiring cardboard to lay on and sent Rebekah after tools and Titus to ride his tricycle. Forrest was upset because he was trying to help but I was not utilizing him properly so he was inventing things to do to help. So, I had to find ways to utilize his desire effectively and once I did that he was a great little helper. I remember helping my Dad and getting yelled at, ahem, motivated frequently. Not a lot of fun. So, trying to keep that in mind I'm rushing around trying to get the oil changed in two vehicles with two little ones somewhat underfoot as it's getting dark and late. But after a few minor issues (I ran out of 5w-30 oil. I'll have to get another quart tomorrow) we finished up. If it weren't for my pride and frugality I would pay to have my oil changed; but if I had done that my boys would've missed out on a great family activity. And just think, maybe if we do enough of our own oil changes we can use the money we save and go to Disneyland... Not!

Toddler/Life update:
Yeah, I don't think the girls are babies anymore. Rebekah wants another urchin to wake her up at night (although Titus is common visitor to our bedroom). I, on the other hand, am thinking about headin to a monastery. Ok, not really, but with stress at work I'm a little uncertain about more financial stress. At the WG they did another round of layoffs and I was hit by the arterial spray of one head-lopping so that made me a bit nervous. But, I'm trusting in God and doing my darndest not to worry about it. The girls have decided they're gonna start on the "terrible twos" a little early. So, we're working on tough love as one starts fussing and the other one isn't far behind.

Boring blog post 2

Hmm. so far so good. I reformatted one of my 500 gig drives to ext2 w/out LVM (still not sure what that is). Now, my driver in windows can read it. This effectively enables me to transfer my movies (vob files) to a drive that can be read in Windows. So far the only hitch in my git-a-long is that I can't get the vob files to play with digital 5.1 surround sound. The things I do for my kids. Do you think my girls will appreciate all the work I went to so they can watch Baby Einstein, do you? No. They won't. Ah well, such is life.

Boring blog post -- Don't read

I warned you.

I am working on our media center right now. Various children are running around while I'm trying to concentrate on how to create a partition and format a drive so that it's non-lvm so my ext2 driver in Windows can read it so I can get data off of it. Yeah. I didn't understand it either. To start @ the beginning, It all started a few months after the girls were born back in Spring of 07 (pronounced "ot" seven). I discovered that over the previous few months the demon spawn, ahem, I mean sweet angelic children had destroyed some expensive DVDs. So, I decided to rip all of my DVDs to a computer and then the munchkins wouldn't even touch them. In attempt to save money, I decided to recycle (how green of me) a computer that we were disposing of @ work. I took that and bought a few pieces and installed Linux w/ a Media Center preconfigured (called MythTV). Well, after a month and a half of working on it (that sounds like a long time, but with kids that's highly efficient) I had a working system that I was proud of. It served us well for a year and then it started acting flaky. I think that it realized that I had decided to replace it with a newer and shiner (albeit more expensive) media center. So, although I had been hemming and hawing, I have begun moving from Linux to Microsoft Vista. This is hard for me. Linux is the geeks toy. If you know what you're doing, then Linux is for you. Newbies get Mac (although that's changing) and hum drum go Windows. Well, tragically, Linux and my install just wasn't making me happy anymore. It lacked flash. It was single tasking (by this I mean that once I started a movie I was no longer in the media center program). It was awkward (set up lirc sometime and you'll see what I mean) and I was frustrated because I couldn't watch various shows that are streamed online (like Lost, although Heroes (NBC) does work).

So, now that I'm done waiting, I guess we'll see how the next step goes.

BTW, in case you're interested in family stuff, I am trying to keep my mind off things because life is just too frustrating right now. Hence the warning about the blog post being boring.

May you live in interesting times

by Grant

That saying (look up) is supposedly an ancient chinese proverb (my book of insults says it's Irish but everybody else says Chinese... eh). It's actually a curse. Interesting times are usually interesting because they're scary. Times of prosperity and and peace are not interesting. I read the Wall Street Journal and I've discovered that I'm intently interested in the domestic financial news. I'm watching Oil futures and reading about the Bank and mortgage woes. Horribly boring stuff except when you look at the price of gas and ponder whether you (or your neighbor) will have a job tomorrow. I work for a company that is 90% domestic housing driven and it's been ugly. I think that we've hit the bottom and it's leveled off, but it's been a wild ride. Thankfully, sometimes you don't know that you're on a roller-coaster until you're half-way done w/ the ride. I haven't blogged in a bit because I've felt a lot of stress from many different sides and didn't want to start whining on the Internet. It's tough to not fret (although I am the first to admit that worry has no benefits) when I look at our budget (yes, we actually have a budget) and see that without major changes (such as selling a car or finding a different job) we can't take any more expenses. Of course, it's at times like this that we get hit with improperly billed medical expenses and find out that we won't get any bonus in the next year and by-the-way you only get 2% pay raise this year no matter how good or bad you performed. Hmmm... that sounds a lot like complaining. Yeah, I think it probably is. God promises to meet our needs. Our pastor said that was "food, clothing and shelter." You mean that doesn't include cell phone and gas?? Well, God frequently meets those "needs" too, but I think it's vital to remember that we Americans have expanded "need" to include so many things. Well, hopefully that wasn't too painful.

Family/life update:
Girls are growing and getting even more fun. They're a blast to play with. Serenity is a super ham and Liberty is almost always demure and graceful. Although, both Rebekah and I were laughing loudly at Liberty as she did her best to imitate a drunk dinosaur (the kind on the Flintstones). I'm not sure where she got that from, but I wish we could've gotten a video of it. A friend from church gave us a print-out of a "permission to date your daughter" application. It was obviously a joke, but I made a mental note to find it when our girls get that age (30).

And remember, keep smiling.
(10 points if anybody knows who "Mr. Kidsel" was on the "Burns and Allen" radio show)

A Saturday to Remember

By Grant


We had some pretty ambitious plans for yesterday, but our day started out with sadness. Our dog of 7 years, Koffee, got hit by a car and killed. I knew it was going to happen because in the past year she had started going across the road to a farmer's field. We saw her almost get hit I don't know how many times. But just a week ago she also started using the carpet as her bathroom as well. After the 5th or 6th time we stopped letting her spend the night indoors and it was that event that precipitated her death. She got hit early saturday morning before we were even out of bed. I feel a bit guilty because I know that If I had been able to train her better, etc. we might have avoided this. But, with four kids and a full time stressful job plus church frequently and involvement it was pretty much impossible to spend more time with the dog.

whew! I just got interrupted by a screaming Liberty who was falling out of her chair under the table because I didn't buckle her in.

Back to the sad story...
So, I took the wheelbarrow across the road (dodging cars) and got her. I made Rebekah stay behind because she couldn't promise that she wouldn't cry. Well, if she started crying then I might and I didn't need that. One of those things that you have to be tough about and just accept with a tinge of regret. I then spent the next hour digging a grave with Rebekah and we laid river rocks on top of it. And even though I don't believe animals have souls, I still prayed a prayer thanking God for the good times she gave us and the protection she provided our house.

I'd like another dog, but I need to find one that's not too energetic and is good with kids. And I am going to get our place fenced in soon to prevent this from happening again. If you have any dog recommendations, please let me know.

Random Pictures 1

Stupid trees. That's the second time a big branch has hit that power line



no idea. beka took these 2


@ Grandpa's house

Naked came I

by Grant


    Now that I have your attention. Let's begin.
(Just in case you're interested, that's from the Bible  (Job 1:21 to be precise). It's also (quite ironically) the name of the autobiography of Opus the Penguin from Bloom County. Unless you're my Mom or brother, I'm quite sure you don't know what or what that is. Although, if you strain your membrane a bit, you may remember a fat penguin in the funny pages (particularly Sunday) named Opus. Aaah, such fond memories. Moving right along...)

I promised myself I wouldn't apologize for not blogging since if there ain't nothing to blog ain't gonna blog (eloquent right). But I've had several things I've wanted to put down and haven't gotten to it. Mostly because I'm lazy, but having four wee ones plays a small part in monopolizing my time.


A few topics I've pondered include the "The refrigerator that could," "Two flew out of the Ballard's nest," "Memorial Madness," "Cheer up Buckeroo"

I guess I'll do "Cheer up Buckaroo" (BTW, I'm working on pictures too)

    This probably isn't too fascinating, but it's the shortest and most recent. I've worked at my current place of employ since 2001. During that time it's been tumultuous but most of my co-workers have been pretty static. The economy has been pretty hard on the good old WG so one of my buddies got laid off in January, another friend (not so much co-worker) got cut a couple months later, and now my cube-mate has moved on to greener pastures (or will in a couple weeks). Que Sera Sera (I hate French! Ooh, and if you're really observant you might notice that's a tautology. bonus points to whoever remembers what that is and who said it). So, who knows what else will happen. The frustrating things is a lunch buddy and commiserating buddy are gone and the work load has to increase. But, no time to feel sorry for myself as there's too much work to do. Oh, and if you're curious about the title (the buckeroo one), my buddy said that when he heard me sigh towards the end of the day. It's funny because he knew exactly the type of sigh and what I was sighing about. I guess you kind of get to know somebody after 5 years working next to each other.


Baby/Life update:
Girls are doing pretty good. A bit too fussy for me. I'm still bothered by the whole girl thing. Not that I don't love them or wish I didn't have them but rather I have been terrified in multiple fashions about how much impact the father has on his daughters. Not to mention guarding them from lecherous men w/out turning them into old maids. Yeah, I'm worrying a bit too soon maybe but it's never too early to start I always say. But they are cute little things and I have to be doubly sure they don't wrap me around their little finger (as the saying goes). Boys are doing great. Forrest is really growing. Sometimes I think he's more mature than the average guy. Not saying that means he's an angel (He's not) but there are many good traits that need nurtured. It's amazing how showing your child love is like giving a plant water and sunlight. They thrive with it. Yes, that's obvious I'm sure, but seeing it in action is much more powerful than words. And Titus, well, that kid has gotten out of more spankin's cause he's so darn cute. So many of the times when he's naughty it's because he is just curious. Anyway, I feel very blessed to have such a great family (and I'm not just saying that).

Mo's Day

by Grant

    Ah, Mother's day. It is always a fun day. I don't think that all mothers should be celebrated though. Don't shoot me yet! There are a lot of rotten ones out there. But with that said, there are a lot of great ones and even being a good one is fantastically hard. How do I know? Well, that's what everybody says for one. And for two, I had to play mother for several days this last week. Rebekah got horribly sick (strep) and was out of action for pretty much four days. That was a horrible experience for all involved. I had to stay home and take care of the kids which got on my last nerve after the second day. I didn't feel that great myself either, but I was a whole lot healthier than she was. I did my best and we all survived, but I am still recovering psychologically and Rebekah is still recovering physically. I have finally reconsidered having more children due to this experience, but Rebekah is still wanting a fifth. I think I'm getting too old for this though. Aah and Serenity has a double ear infection and a urinary tract infection. So, she's a wee bit crabby. Of course, everybody is still more sociable than me at my best.

BTW, is it legal to kill a bird on your property? a pheasant just walked by. Imagine, pheasant under glass. Eh. I think I prefer Chinese food.
Anyway, I think it's got to be very hard to be a mom. Typically stuck in the house, doing the same old routine day after day. Listening to all the fighting and squabbling and stuff. Listening to the complaints about the food (they're lucky they have food). etc. etc. etc. And even if you are keeping your children alive and fairly healthy, there's always other mothers that seem to be so much more "with-it" Ptooey. I spit on them! Something has to be sacrificed because there is not enough time and energy in the day to do everything. Something has to go. Frequently it is attention to your husband or a meaningful relationship with your children. So, let it be known that although I'm a pretty ogreish (not really a word) husband and father, I do love and appreciate my wife for all she does for me and our family. And of course, I love and appreciate what my own poor mother for what she had to put up with from four boys (we had a sister too, but she was the oldest and gone to college when I was still young).

What's with all the ability?

by Grant

    I am astounded by my children on a pretty routine basis. I'm not sure why, but I am. And I smile and nod knowingly when others exclaim their surprise at what their young'uns are doing. Forrest seems to have many of my abilities but Titus and Serenity seem to have music in their soul. Dancing and singing makes them so happy. They're both hams too. They pander to their audience. If they see something is funny they keep it up and if you start getting tired of it, they throw in a little variation so you can hardly tear your eyes away. I need to take some pictures, but alas I have not.

I am currently struggling with some sort of sinus/fluish thing. I guess all the kids had it and it body-slammed me yesterday. I am very grateful for aspirin/tylenol for the simple fact of fever suppression. I can take my fever down from "shivering under the covers" to "able to function with a grump level of 9." What's the top grump value, you ask? Not telling! But I normally run at grump level 6-7.

As far as my wrists/recovery, I am doing ok. I didn't realize it would take so long to heal and the pain is different than what expected. What did I expect? Not sure, but something different. My wrist is healing but after talking to others, I guess it can take a long time (didn't I blog that before?).

On a random political note, is anybody as annoyed about the upcoming presidential election as I am? I don't think anybody is happy no matter what your political persuasion. If you're a right-winger then you'd have to swallow hard to take McCain (especially if you're "religious right". He told us off good in 2000). If you're a liberal you might like Obama, but give me a break. He's been in a church that hates America (or at least the pastor does) for over 20 years. I heard him today and he said that he didn't take any spiritual (or otherwise) guidance from his Pastor. Well what the heck are you going to his church for?? Oh, and Hillary? Don't get me started, but suffice it to say that she lied about an obvious incident about being under sniper fire (like 10 years ago). Come on, at least lie about the stuff nobody can prove differently. I am reminded of a political cartoon from the late 70s (they didn't like Reagan... putzes). It stated, something along the lines of having to choose from the "evil of two lessers" (for those of you that are slow, that's a play on "lesser of two evils")

Funny Story

by Grant

    There I was, minding my own business. It was a warm sunshiney (not a word) day and I had just gotten off work and was headed to my Brother-in-law's house for dinner (I used to call it supper before my wife corrupted me). Since it was so warm, I rolled down my window just a bit (maybe a quarter of the way) and embarked on my 15 minute jaunt. There I was, minding my own business--woops, I already said that. Well, I was cruising down the highway between 55 and 60 (the price of gas has made me be very legal minded on speeding) and BAM! Unbelievable pain shot through my body. Wham! it just wouldn't stop. I weaved around on the road (mostly staying in my lane though) while I tried to figure out what was afflicting me. It didn't take me too long to realize that I had been stung, but the dang thing hadn't hit and run. He was a frickin' kamikaze. Ya know bees die when they sting, so I guess he decided that stinging me wasn't enough and he had to throw his whole not-dead-yet corpse at me and hang out on my mustache. I swear I heard him yell Banzai!

<sigh>

I finally grabbed his fluttering body w/ my right hand and threw him onto my passenger seat (good thing Rebekah wasn't there). I then pulled off the road and spent the next couple minutes yelling in pain every few seconds. The darn thing had stung me right below my right nostril. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a black speck on my mustache. It was the dastardly stinger! I saved it and took it and the still not-dead-yet bee to show Rebekah.

Well, after a few minutes most of the pain was gone. Just like any bee sting I guess. But the nice little post script is that for the next few days my upper lip became numb and swollen. I didn't think I was vain, but when you look like somebody punched you in the mouth, well... I guess I am.

Thankfully all is back to normal. But I have decided that all bees must die! I have become the Anti-Bee Avenger and have made it my mission to destroy bees everywhere. Armed with a blowtorch and a set of asbestos undies I will purge the scourge (ooh, that rhymes) of the bee hives throughout all of Christendom. Oh wait, I'm married and I have four kids. Never mind.

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Time races by

by Grant

    The girls are tottering around. Hair abounds on their heads. Forrest is turning into a little man and Titus is a real charmer. Seems like just yesterday that we were kidless, but those memories are getting more and more distant. A couple in our church has initiated divorce. They are a few years older than Rebekah and myself with three young girls. I think they were married 13 years. I always wondered how you could get divorced after being married that long. I think a big part of it is neglect. I'm sure years of ignoring each other and barely tolerating each other as well as fighting finally brought things to a head. And of course, there's always "happiness." If you're not "happy" then that is a reason to leave. I'm not condemning someone that gets a divorce. I'm just trying to understand it. I think that when you have kids one of the things that you risk is the closeness that you have with your spouse. Once you have children, your time and money is gone (Not that I remember having money before kids either). Without time or money, it's pretty hard to maintain a relationship with your significant other. I think it behooves us to keep in mind that any relationship takes work. Whether it's a good friend, a spouse (significant other), or with God (Buddha, Zeus, insert deity here). I tell ya though, it's pretty darn hard when you're tired out of your mind to find energy to work on a relationship. But all I know is that it's necessary.

Snapshot

by Grant

    Have you ever wanted to take a mental picture and burn it into your mind so you can remember it forever. Yeah, doesn't work too well. It seems like the things you remember are almost random or maybe totally traumatic. Watching our girls totter along is a "precious memory." I'm not sure why it seems more special--maybe all that neato uncertainty and stress we had before and after their birth. Anyway, we have some pictures but Rebekah is kind of a snob and won't make the effort to blog 'em. I'll see about doing them shortly.

Baby/Life Update:
    Girls are fairly healthy. Serenity is teething and very unhappy but generally we finally feel like we're through the winter woes. The boys are great and Titus I swear gets cuter every day. Forrest is turning into a little man and I can really have him help out and do things. One day I made him get wood for the stove all by himself. My left arm has been mostly worthless since the surgery and whenever I use it a little bit (to work) I seem to set my recovery back a couple of weeks.

So, not a lot of fascinating news but hopefully a little bit informative at least.

The first thing to make me smile

all freakin' day.


"Why would I go to Utah? I love Booze, caffeine, and monogamy!"
Homer J. Simpson


I go under the knife tomorrow

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Torture

by Grant

My wife is watching some cheerleading movie. I'm not sure why, but I'm confident that she's doing it to torture me.

Interesting things have been happening.

The company where I work has been hit hard by the slowdown of housing starts combined with the sub-prime loan scandal. So, they decided to trim their monthly operating expenses to put them more in line w/ expenses. Translation: layoffs. This is a public blog, so I won't make editorial comments on how well it was executed. Suffice it to say that a fair number (10% roughly) of people were let go. Pretty scary times. It was a *little* less scary when I realized that there was a definite pattern to who got let go. I didn't think I fit, but who can ever say, ya know? But, the one person in IT that got let go did get some sort of severance which is pretty fair. We probably would have lost more, but we did some housecleaning prior. Also, we had one person quit (to go to another job) the week of the layoffs. All told we lost four out of Operations. If they cut anybody else, stuff is going to break and nobody will have the expertise to fix it. Thankfully, our boss fully understands this.

I'm going in for Carpal Tunnel Surgery this Wednesday. Hopefully that goes well. If not, my wife is already planning what to do with the insurance money.


Rebekah has some videos of the girls that I will heckle her to upload so all may view.

I know that there's other stuff, but danged if I can remember it now.

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Ugh: Part 2

by Grant

    It seems like I've already done an ugh, so thus the part 2. Rebekah and I are both sick with the flu. The girls (mostly Liberty) had it a few days  ago. It's been pretty rough. But, that's life w/ kids. Definitely one part I hadn't really expected too much. But, lots of other people are sick too so I guess I can't just blame it on my pathetic immune system. But Wow was Liberty unhappy. The girls have been so good, that when they are fussy it's really hard to deal with it. But Liberty is flirting with me right now as I write this, so I guess she's back to her normal self.

Exciting news in the Ballard household: We bought a new TV. And as is customary, we bought the coolest one out there--a flat panel. Well, before you are too critical about the allocation of funds, let me tell you a couple of things. First, I have never ever purchased a TV before. The 20" model we've been using was purchased over ten years ago by Rebekah. Second, I was expecting no bonus at work due to the economy and I got a pretty good one. Third, my friend that was laid-off recently had purchased a TV right after Turkey Day and had never taken it out of the box. So, the good Samaritan that I am, I offered to take it off his hands. So, all the stars aligned to make this purchase happen. I was even able to get it while my wife and fam (except for the girls) were gone. One small problem: It didn't fit in the entertainment center. Solution: Power Saw! At least with a flat panel I only had to cut 5" out, but I knew my wife would probably be resistant, so I had to move fast. When she got home the TV was mounted and she was impressed. Thankfully, the cabinet was home-made out of 3/4" plywood so it's structurally sound.


My brother Tyler and his wife Amy are having a house warming this next weekend. It's a sight to behold that's for sure. My Dad took a house and drug it into town probably 20 years ago and converted it into a garage (he built it into such a large building that my Mom dubbed it, the "Monster"). Then 15 years later, he converted part of it into a small temporary "apartment" for Tyler and his wife. Then a couple years ago, they started expanding it into a decent size "house." I put house in " because it's still part of a larger structure, but hopefully it's large enough for a family now. It is a beautiful work of art, let me tell you. Tyler has spent countless hours on sanding and varnishing wood for the walls and Amy has used her interior designer intelligence to make it look like something you'd see on the H&G channel.

Last, but not least, it's my birthday! yes!

Nicknames

by Grant

    I've called my kids lots of things over the years and most of them are printable. I was thinking that it might be amusing to jot some of these down for posterity (in Internet years, that would be about 2 minutes).


Forrest:

• Velociraptor: Yes, it's a mouthful. But when he was first walking, he moved quickly on his tiptoes with this hands out in front of him just like those little nasty dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
• il Duche: When Forrest was younger I called him that because he was so bossy. For those of you weak on History, il Duche was Mussolini's title and it means the leader.

Titus:

• Ti-Ti (prounounced Tie-Tie): I think this one needs no explanation
• Tow (Tube Launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided Missile) Head: Ok, towhead means a really blond headed kid. and TOW is a missile used by the military so I just blended the two.
• Scarface: Very recent because he got a nasty scratch that curved around his cheek.

Liberty:

• L-dawg: Short for Liberty Dawg ala Snoop Dawg
• Libs: Occasionally I do shorten her name in the conventional method, but I try to avoid Libby.

Serenity:

• Any Guesses? Yep, S-dawg.
  
• Rebekah calls her "Renny"
• Bill the Cat. This is from a comic strip (now deceased) called Bloom County. The cat would go "Ack!" and stick out it's tongue. Serenity does the same :)

I'm sure there are others and maybe I can get Rebekah to add to the list.

The nice thing about an old House

by Grant

    I came down with a cold this last week. No biggie. I got up thursday morning feeling really rotten and trying to stop myself from wimping out of work. So, I took a shower. Well, most of a shower. Two Thirds of the way through the water quit. Yeah, just quit. So, I hopped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and proceeded to confirm my worst fears... aliens had landed. No! Uhm, yeah, there was no water.

<sigh>


So, I go and wake up my wife and then climb down into my pump house with a heat gun. Three hours later, after calling my Dad and a friend at work I finally concede defeat. Of course, I'm not the only one with this problem. My contact for this has five calls already (dang, I should've called earlier). I call my friend Mark and he pulls some strings and gets his brother out there (who owns Leon's Pumps in Payette) in 15 minutes. A few minutes later he thaws out the area on the pump that tells it when to kick on (pressure sensor). Argh! One of those things that you know what the problem is but not quite sure how to fix it. So, we're pretty good to go. Of course, when the pressure tank goes dry then there turns out to be a lot of sediment. Dirt. black stuff. Forrest got really freaked out when the kitchen faucet came on spurting and spitting and ran into the bathroom where the tub was on full blast. Yeah, he didn't handle it well as the tub was even scarier.I came back into the house to be greeted by a screaming kiddo. The pressure was low but that evened out. The only problem was my bathroom faucet. It still seemed frozen as we could get nothing but a drip drip out of it. I eventually figured out that it wasn't frozen at all but plugged full of sediment. So, about a hundred bucks and several frozen appendages later (did I mention it was cold outside?) we're back to normal. So, one more task that I have in front of me is insulating the pump house and putting some sort of heating light down there.

Life... in the fast lane.

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Friday - By Rebekah

 
Just some minor news for the day. :-)

This morning when I went up to give the girls their bottle, I found
Serenity sitting up facing Liberty, with Liberty laying down. But they
were holding hands and talking. It was very cute! Unfortunately, I
didn't have the camera with me (cause I had the bottles) and they
wouldn't have held still while I went downstairs anyway...as soon as
they see their bottles, they go nuts!

I have been potty training Titus for 2 weeks now, but most of the time
he does nothing. He has had occasional accidents but today he actually
told me BEFORE he had to go and he MOSTLY made it. :-)

As most of you probably know, Forrest has been unofficially in preschool
this year, with me as his teacher. Unofficially because we don't do it
every day...we do it whenever we have time. So far he knows all his
letters, upper and lower case, and can write his numbers 1-10. We also
work on drawing shapes and this morning after he drew I heart, I told
him that the heart shape also stands for love. So then I wrote "Mom -
heart - Forrest & Titus" and told him that meant that I love him and
Titus. He then wrote "Dad" and said that I loved Daddy too. :-)

Oh, the other thing the girls have been doing is pulling themselves up
to everything. (they just started crawling after Christmas) Their legs
aren't strong enough to be standing much yet so they get up to something
and then start wobbling like crazy, and cry because they know they're
going to fall. They're so stubborn...just like their dad! haha!!!

That's all for now...have a great day!

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Pictures (late 2007)

More pictures (some boring, some not) can be found @
http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p168/gcballard/December%202007/
Choose "view all" to see them all.

Serenity, showing her flexibility


Liberty, having a grand old time


Christmas (at my parents)!




Forrest "helping" titus

The Fam.
L to R
Amy, Axel, Reagan, Tyler
Beka, Serenity, Grant, Liberty, Titus
(I have no idea where Forrest is)


The "Gallery of Forrest"


Doing a pretty hard puzzle. If you look closely, you can see it's of my truck. Forrest did 2/3rds of it easily.

The Last  Piece

Admiring his work


The inspring picture (My dad takes pictures and turns them in to puzzles)

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vocab 101

by Grant


    Learned from the Simpsons this week: Eponymous and Masthead. Eponymous has to do with something being named after a person. So, Rome is an eponym for Romulus the founder. JimBob Payette was the eponymous explorer of Payette county (I made up his first name.I think it's actually something frenchy french).

Masthead is the portion in a newspaper or magazine that nobody reads because it has the names of the important people that own or run said media item.


Oh, and instead of just randomly memorizing words. I credit a large part of my vocabulary to my high school English teacher, Mrs. Brackenbury (or Mrs. B. for short). She had us memorize latin roots (greek too? not sure, it's been a long time). I should have known epi (upon) but I did  know nym which is name. So, literally  -> Name  Upon. See the logic? If that doesn't make much sense I'll try to figure out some more obvious examples.... Circumspect means look (or see) and around (like a circle). So, if you are being circumspect you are being cautious which means you're looking around.

Any Questions?

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